The present invention relates to an information recording/reproducing apparatus, an information recording/reproducing method, a program storage medium, and a program. More particularly, the invention relates to an information recording/reproducing apparatus, an information recording/reproducing method, a program storage medium, and a program for arranging specific files into groups by attribute for rapid recording and reproduction so that file systems not designed to handle files in such a manner may deal with the files in groups for high-speed processing.
Techniques to record files onto mass storage media are coming into general use today.
Diverse formats have been proposed in which to write files to such media.
For example, UDF (Universal Disc Format) has been proposed for and used by DVD's (Digital Versatile Disc). This format is discussed illustratively in “Universal Disk Format Specification Revision 2.01,” published on Mar. 15, 2000, by the Optical Storage Technology Association.
The above-cited UDF is characterized in that it allows a large number of files to be recorded in a dispersed manner on the medium. Moreover, with UDF, information for indicating the locations of files on the medium is stored between the files in what is called “nested” fashion. It follows that numerous addresses may need to be accessed before a desired file can be acquired. If moving pictures are recorded in that fashion on the storage medium, it sometimes becomes impossible to ensure that the pictures are suitably timed in sequence when reproduced. That is, smooth reproduction of moving pictures could be jeopardized.